At-risk youth find haven in boxing, mentoring program founded by Archie Moore

However, the weight became unbearable, facade difficult to maintain. So the little boy elected to confide despite fearing judgment.

“You know, coach, I’m not afraid of anything. I can handle my own,” the little boy said to Billy Moore, pounding the center of his chest, fist clenched.

“I’m in the third grade, but I can’t even read at a first-grade level.”

Moore, the Any Body Can Youth Foundation boxing gym owner and longtime boxing instructor, sank back in his chair, listening.

“My mother doesn’t know it, but late at night, I crawl out of my window and I go outside and I look up at the sky and I say, ‘Please help me read.’ ”

A safe haven

For roughly two decades, Moore has been in charge of the ABC program that provides solace for adolescents needing guidance in the Stockton community of San Diego.

Small but tidy, the 1,300 square-foot, beige-colored facility offers a comprehensive after-school program featuring two components.

Participants receive one-on-one tutoring in the learning center — full of textbooks and computers at their disposal — and boxing instruction in the facility’s gym from a staff of licensed educators and boxing trainers.

In addition to instruction, help is available. Moore and his staff often double as mentors and counselors, comforting, consoling and empowering kids who need a shoulder to cry or lean on, or a confidant.

Undoubtedly, it’s a hefty burden and responsibility — mentoring 50 regulars who enter the program cloaked with rigid exteriors — but Moore refuses to view it as such.

“I’ve been called to do it,” Moore said. “Our kids are in trouble, a lot of trouble. This program saves lives.”

Inception

ABC was founded by Archie Moore — Billy’s father — in 1957.

The San Diego resident and professional boxer witnessed the deterioration of drug-and-gang-infested areas and the toll it had on the youth, predicting an epidemic in the United States, according to Billy.

Fearful, he created a prevention program, one that would offer a more positive, productive outlet for kids to counteract idle bodies and minds.

It began with a sport “the Old Mongoose” excelled in.

“Boxing is much like life,” said the late light heavyweight world champion, who holds the record for most career knockouts (131), “where one learns through trial and error. But the best-conditioned individual in boxing, as in life, will usually be the victor.”

According to Billy, his father believed boxing was the perfect tool to combat the rigors of life because, when grasped, the fundamentals of boxing provide discipline, confidence, self-reliance and lessons about character, life and citizenship.

“I will teach these kids how to step off in life with their best foot forward,” Archie would say, “without cowardice, but with courage and dignity.”

Balance

The concept ingrained in him, Billy took the reins of the program in the early ’90s, continuing the work of his father, who died in 1998 at age 81.

Under his guidance, ABC was in several locations in Stockton before settling in the facility on Market Street. In addition, with the help of business partner Dr. Bob Murand, he established a 15-member board of directors and started a learning center, which transformed the then-exclusive boxing gym.